27 Sep 2016
by diomitamaurer
in Exploring sims in Second Life
Tags: Diomita Maurer, Inara Pey, Living in a Modemworld, Pandora Resort, sapphirejolla, Second Life
I have explored many “RL sims” during my vacation – now being back home I started exploring SL sims again. I scrolled back in Inara’s blog and came across her post “A vacation at Pandora Resort in Second Life” and decided to visit Pandora Resort. As always I recommend to read Inara’s post for a more detailled description of the sim.
I arrived at the station (the landing point) and was impressed by the large hall with the two railroad engines. And I was welcomed via IM by one of the team Managers, Sapphire Jewel (sapphirejolla). That was nice! Thank you again, Sapphire. I stepped out of the station and roamed through the town of Ironfalls. In it’s center is a nice park and a church. From there I made my way up into the mountains.
On my way up i saw the Pandora Resort, a big house overlooking Ironfalls. Then I noticed the cable car moving up into the mountains and I took it. The ride was nice and led up quite high, it began to snow and I was definitively not dressed for winter yet. Stepping out of the cable car was a challenge. And there’s no good way to get down again. The snowy environment is lovely, particularly for someone who love skiing like me, but in Second Life it is difficult to build structures like mountains on which you can walk. I found some ways later, but that is definitively a downside that destroyed the experience – at least mine. Scattered into the lower mountains are vacations home that you can rent. Prices are high as in every lovely surrounding. You have to pay for the view *winks.
At the end of my visit I took a closer look at the Pandora Resort, the big house overlooking Ironfalls. The Resort is really a gem. Fully furnitured with love for the detail. Many spots to sit and talk, to celebrate or to simply have a good time. The Pandora Resort and it’s furnishings were the highlight for me and it’s really worth seeing.
Thank you, Sapphire for your heartly welcome, and thanks to the team for creating and providing this place for us.
Landmark for Pandora Resort
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Hurricane/18/133/22
Inara Pey’s blog
https://modemworld.me/2016/09/16/a-vacation-at-pandora-resort-in-second-life/
16 Sep 2016
by diomitamaurer
in Exploring sims in Second Life
Tags: BadboyHi, Diomita Maurer, Inara Pey, Living in a Modemworld, Yasmin Heartsdale, Yasminia
Following Inara Pey’s blog I came across her post titeled “
Yasminia: pastoral peace in Second Life“. For those following this blog for a longer time, or who have read back into the first years, the name Yasminia rings a bell. I really couldn’t believe it to see Yasminia in a blog title of Inara and even more together with the words pastoral and in particular peaceful! My last blog entry about Yasminia is from February 2012 and was sort of a farewell post.
Yasminia in February 2012
Yasminia was the homesim of Yasmin Heartsdale who owned me during my first 3 years in SL. Yasminia was named after her and being Yasmin’s brat it was my second home. Yasmina at that time was full of traps, bdsm gear, spots to cuddle and I certainly took a lot of inspiration from it when building out homsim Mount Everest. And it had most of the time the character of an Caribean island. If yo want to know more about the Yasminia of 2012 read more about it here.
September 9th: Diomita visiting Yasminia’s farm
No doubt, I had to visit new, pastoral and peaceful Yasminia. I wonder if the owner and creator of it, Busta (BadboyHi), knows about Yasminia’s past. Yasminia was an adult sim while the new sim is rated general. The
new Yasminia is a lovely rural sim with a lot of nature, horses and everything you would expect when you visit a pastoral and peaceful sim. As always I recommend to read Inara’s detailled description. I roamed over the whole sim and climbed up to the lighthouse for an overview. Finally I sat down, enjoyed the peace and my thoughts went back to 2012 and before. What a long, exciting and various life we had and still have in Second Life.
September 9th: Diomita at Yasminia – thinking back
The
new Yasminia is for sure worth a visit in particular for those interested in taking pictures and in exploring, like myself. I enjoyed walking and discovering Yasminia. Thank you Busta for providing it for all of us!
13 Sep 2016
by diomitamaurer
in Exploring sims in Second Life
Tags: Arranmore, Destination guide, Diomita Maurer, Inara Pey, Lauren Bentham, Living in a Modemworld, Second Life
Friday, September 2nd, I went simploring. After visiting
Cica’s Library I went to
Arranmore, also listed in the
Destination guide and described in Inara Pey’s blog “
Arranmore in Second Life“.
“Explore the timeless coastal island of Arranmore, with its haunted manor house and photogenic scenery. Enjoy the creepy landscape shrouded in mist. Remember, it is not what you can see that is scary – it is what you can’t see.” (quoted from the Landmark’s description).
You will have been offered the free Arranmore flashlight upon arrival. This flashlight will work, and cast light just like a real flashlight, if advanced lighting is set in your graphics preferences. It is also recommended to turn shadows on. I did that but my graphic card couldn’t handle it really and all became way to slow for me, hence I turned shadows off again after a while. In my personal opinion, you won’t need the shadows, the sim is just great to see just with the advanced lighting, but you will need advanced lighting to really enjoy it.
The scenery is dark and foggy and you need the flashlight. Everything farer away is swallowed by the dark and the fog. I turned right from the landing point and followed the old railroad tracks to an old lonely house with a scrap car in front of it. I could sense that living here was once very active but all is more or less deserted nowadays. Then I saw the manor dimly in the center end of the sim and walked over to it.
The manor is real MUST see here in Arranmore. It proves the possibilities of Second Life for creative people – WOW. Turn your sound on btw. it adds a lot to the scary atmosphere, a phone rings every once in a while but isn’t answered, the wind howls through every crack of the old building, and lightenings illuminate the inside of the house revealing persons and ghosts.
In one room I met the creator of Arranmore, Lauren Bentham. She’s a content creator of many things, including landscapes, Environments & Dark Fantasy Fairytale Stuff and created and owns several sims like the Baja sims (Baja Norte,Baja Cove,Baja Bay & Baja Sands) or Netherwood. Some of these names ring a bell, but checking my blog I didn’t find any entry – so more to explore for me!
September 2nd – Arranmore: Diomita meets Lauren Bentham (creator and owner of Arranmore). Look at the ghost between us!
September 2nd – Arranmore: Suddenly I noticed the ghost sitting in the chair. Watch the little details – the teapot begins to hoover and to poor tea into the cups, but none is there
I really enjoyed exploring the manor. What a great work! For me it was also an early teaser for the upcoming Halloween season. Thank you Lauren for providing Arranmore to the public.
04 Sep 2016
by diomitamaurer
in Exploring sims in Second Life
Tags: art in SL, Cica Ghost, Destination guide, Inara Pey, Living in a Modemworld
Following the Destination guide I came across Cica Ghost’s Library. I have visited several of Cica’s art installations before, the last I saw was Key’s. Cica’s Library is also – no surprise – described in Inara Pey’s blog “A visit to Cica’s Library in Second Life“. “The only thing that you absolutely MUST know, is the location of the library (Albert Einstein)” is what you’ll find as a sim description. No wonder, Cica’s library is full of books!
September 2nd: Cica’s Library
Upon you arrival you have to pass the librarian, an old Lady supervising the library and she’s not only pale (as an librarian is usually), she also old and wear thick glasses and hence fulfills all cliches. To me she looked really scary as she’s tall, really tall, like everything in Cica’s library.
September 2nd: The librarian at Cica’s Library
Because everything, every book, even the mobile library truck is huge, I felt small – just like my knowledge is small compared to all what is written down in books. Good thing is that you can climb up the piles of books and immediately get an overview about all the knowledge *grins*
September 2nd: The mobile library truck at Cica’s Library
September 2nd: Climbing up a pile of books at Cica’s Library
This is anothter great installation from Cica Ghost – of course everyone will interpret it differently and have own thoughts. I enjoyed my short visit and the impressions I got. Thank you, Cica!
Landmark to Cica’s library:
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sky%20Atoll/243/202/40
Destination guide entry:
http://secondlife.com/destination/library-by-cica-ghost
Inara Pey’s blog post about Cica’s library:
https://modemworld.me/2016/08/26/a-visit-to-cicas-library-in-second-life/
31 Aug 2016
by diomitamaurer
in Exploring sims in Second Life
Tags: Bine Rodenberger, Binemust, Diomita Maurer, Inara Pey, Living in a Modemworld
Friday night, August 19th, I got an opportunity to explore Second Life. A went to
Binemust, which is (as always) perfectly described in Inara Peys’s blog “
Binemust in Second Life“.
Bine Rodenberger, the owner and creator of the sim writes about it “
Binemust – a 2 island sim with an underwater world aswell. Enjoy the different scenes and find your way to the floating rock in the sky and an interior decor experimentation in the skybox. There are 2 portholes by the landing point. The door will take you to the skybox, and the hole in the ground will take you to the floating rock in the sky.”
I started my discovery with the underwater world. It is bizarre. Some areas look like just recently sunken under water, like the railroad with the power poles along it’s side. At the end of the railroad tracks is a locomotive graveyard. Next to is is another field with a Buddha, an elefant, an tree, strange flying eyes. For sure you can take surrealistic pictures of these places, as in addition there’re turtles and sharks swimming around you (well, you’re under water). Another place in the underwater world is a big camping area (under water!). As I said: bizarre but very interesting and there’s a lot to discover.
I took the two offered teleports to the “interior decor experimentation” and to the floating rock. The interior decor experimentation is very well done. Inside you won’t imagine that you’re in a skybox and I really like the decor and the layout of this little house.
Then I went exploring the 2 islands. First I visited the chapel which is not used as such anymore. It’s hard to describe – there’s the illuminated advertising that remembers of a red light district, there’s a lot of garbage, an old bike and the chancel is dominated by a sculpture from Mistero Hifeng. So my first impression of the first island was: also bizarre. Yet there are several other houses which are not bizarre at all. Inside you see that they are occupied and decorated with love. And on the porches and terraces you find nice spots to sit and enjoy.
August 19th – Binemust chapel
The other island is connected by a ballon bridge and it is quite a high rock. On its top is a lighthouse and it looks really comfortable inside. At the foot of the rock is a small beach where you can either sit and enjoy or take a swan pedal boat to explore Binemust from the water side.
August 19th – Binemust balloon bridge
Binemust is a really varied sim, it has something of everything: Art, Surrealism, Nature, Fantasy and is also just a nice place to be. And I’m pretty sure that there’re many details that I haven’t found yet. Thank you Bine for providing the sim to us all!
Last but not least, there’s also a
website where you find more pictures and information about Binemust as well Bine’s blog.
29 Aug 2016
by diomitamaurer
in Exploring sims in Second Life
Tags: Byrd Island, Diomita Maurer, Inara Pey, LICK, Living in a Modemworld, Second Life, Sera Bellic
“Welcome to Byrd Island. Take a step back in time to explore this once inhabited island. The Light house keeper and his family left the island never to return. Could it have been the birds, or something else? Byrd Island is now open for tours.”
August 20th: A visit to Byrd Island (1)
This is the landmark description of Byrd Island, which I came across following Inara Pey’s blog and her post “Byrd Island in Second Life“. Byrd Island is another creation of Sera Bellic, who owns LICK sim design, and she demonstrates her talent again. I had visited her “Adirondacks in Second Life” as well as her “LICK – Heaven or Hell” before in 2016.
August 20th: A visit to Byrd Island (2)
August 20th: A visit to Byrd Island (3)
When I arrived at Byrd Island it was foggy (using the windlight settings of the sim) and the atmosphere accordingly mystic. A swarm of seagulls welcomed me as well as some pelicans. As expected there’re many birds and even when you don’t see them by accident their sound is everywhere. I do like in particular the big wooden landing pier as it reminds me of my home RL. There’s one big difference to reality – in Second Life the pier isn’t covered with bird droppings.
At the pier, where you arrive is a little beach and the elevator to the high plateau of Byrd Island. You can use a rope ladder instead for getting there. I roamed around the Island and peeked into the buildings. The sim is beautiful, offers many views and places to sit and cuddle and is for sure worth a visit just to explore or to get some ideas for own sim designs.
August 20th: A visit to Byrd Island (4)
As I had to stop my visit unexpectingly I returned later the same day to Byrd Island. The fog was gone and the atmosphere was different. I could smell summer and I tried out some of the places to chill or to hang around and to listen to the sounds of the birds. What a difference the sun can make!
August 20th: A visit to Byrd Island (5)
Landmark to Byrd Island:
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Oyster%20Bay/44/186/31
Inara Pey’s blog:
https://modemworld.me/2016/08/20/byrd-island-in-second-life/
15 Aug 2016
by diomitamaurer
in Exploring sims in Second Life
Tags: art in SL, Bryn Oh, Cica Ghost, Diomita Maurer, Inara Pey, Kultivate Magazine, Living in a Modemworld, Second Life
Following Inara Pey’s blog I came across and art show and event in Second Life “
Kultivate Summer Art Show in Second Life“. The Kultivate Magazine / Windlight Gallery
Summer Art Show has opened in Second Life. Running through until Saturday, August 20th, the event features, art, music and shopping.
August 14th: Diomita as living art in Silas Merlin’s installation
Over 50 2D and 3D artists are participating in the event. And some of them did appear already in this blog and hence are my favourites: Bryn Oh and Cica Ghost. The whole show is placed on a beach, with a few larger buildings for the 2D art and many kiosks for shopping. Inbetween is a big event stage (see list of events in
Inara’s blog article or at the
show web page) and the 3D art pieces. I placed myself into Silas Merlin’s sphere and I really stand out there, don’t I?).
I also got into Cica’s art “Cica’s hinging line” tumbling in a huge washing machine (poor me!) and I became part of Bryn Oh’s “Lazy Lazy Bryn”.
There’s a lot to see. Have fun!
Landmark for the event in Second Life
09 Aug 2016
by diomitamaurer
in Uncategorized
Tags: Firestorm Viewer, Inara Pey, Living in a Modemworld
I just updated the viewer and am testing the new features. So far it seems pretty good. Inara’s post about the new features helps a lot for understanding what has changed and how to handle the different changes. Thank you so much for your work, Inara!
I recommend reading Inara’s blog post so that you know what has changed. Good luck updating 🙂
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld
Monday, August 8th saw Firestorm release version 4.7.9.50527 of their viewer. Coming a little over four months since the last release, 4.7.9 brings with it a lot of important changes from the Lab – perhaps most visible Avatar Complexity and graphics pre-sets – as well as a large number of nips, tucks, fixes and improvements from the Firestorm team and open source / TPV contributors.
As per my usual MO, what follows is not an in-depth review of the release, but rather an overview, highlighting some of the more significant / interesting changes, updates and fixes, which I feel will be of most interest to users.
For full details of all changes, and all due credits to contributors, etc., please refer to the official release notes.
When installing this release, uninstall the existing version and then install the new 4.7.9 release – no need for a clean install.
Available…
View original post 3,355 more words
09 Aug 2016
by diomitamaurer
in Exploring sims in Second Life
Tags: Diomita Maurer, Eclectica, Inara Pey, Living in a Modemworld, Mystica, Nibby Riddler, Second Life
I wrote about Eclectica about one year ago here in this blog. And now I came across this beautiful sim again. Maddy (nibby.riddler) changed the it a lot and named it Mystica now. The Landmark description sums it up perfectly: “Make your way through Mystica, the newest build on the ever changing Eclectica sim, a mystical floating archipelago in the sky with the popular wedding chapel below, propose, elope, automated, free honeymoon, photos, relax, meditate, romance, lovers, cuddle“.
Inara wrote another description (well the sim has changed) about “Mystical Eclectica in Second Life“
August 6th: Diomita at Mystica (1)
August 6th: Diomita at Mystica (2)
Mystica is build in the skies on connected rocks (no worries you won’t fall down). And it really offers a lot of romantic places, just to mediate, to cuddle or simply to enjoy. I began discovering the new layout but I’m by far not done yet. The best spot I found for an overview is from the “balloon bed”. I don’t know an official way to get up to it, so I used my magic Second Life powers and just right clicked “sit”. From there you have a good view on the sim and you can discover all the secret lovely places to enjoy. A visit is strongly recommended.
August 6th: Diomita at Mystica enjoying the view from the “balloon bed”
Landmark to Mystica (Eclectica)
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/The%20Place/61/116/260
Inara Peys blog about Mystica
https://modemworld.me/2016/08/06/mystical-eclectica-in-second-life/
about Eclectica in this blog
https://themaurers.me/2015/08/14/eclectica/
Maddy’s (nibby.riddler) Homepage about Electica (I didn’t find out if there’s a new homepage about Mystica)
http://www.eclecticasim.com/
07 Aug 2016
by diomitamaurer
in Exploring sims in Second Life
Tags: Diomita Maurer, Hide & Seek, Inara Pey, Living in a Modemworld, Second Life, Seth Theodore delwood-reign, Sethcohen Nirvana
Hide & Seek is a lovely island open to the public for a limited time. The sim is owned by Seth Theodore delwood-reign (sethcohen.nirvana). I came across it once again following Inara Pey’s Living in a Modemworld blog where you can read a much more detailed description of Hide and Seek in Second Life.
August 6th: Diomita at Hide & Seek
The name says it all: You can explore the island seeking a place to hide or to mediate and you will most probably find it. The beach is for sure a bit more public but I like it very much. Friday night I sat there and enjoyed the view before it was time to go dancing.
August 5th: Diomita at Hide & Seek beach
On the island you’ll find also a quite large forest. There are some quiet spots like a hanging chair to cuddle or to dream, a camp with a campfire and an old drive-in cinema. Just perfect to hide or to cuddle in a nice environment.
August 6th: Diomita relaxing in the hanging chair at Hide & Seek
August 6th: drive-in cinema at Hide & Seek
August 6th: Diomita eating popcorn at Hide & Seek drive-in Cinema
Another beautiful place to visit. I don’t get tired exploring Second Life and the creativity of it’s residents. Thank you Seth for providing your place to the public. I just hope you keep it public for a long time. I really enjoyed my visit and would like to hide there more often.
Landmark to Hide&Seek:
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Kahlo/32/229/22
Inara Pey’s blog article:
https://modemworld.me/2016/08/02/hide-and-seek-in-second-life/
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On my way up i saw the Pandora Resort, a big house overlooking Ironfalls. Then I noticed the cable car moving up into the mountains and I took it. The ride was nice and led up quite high, it began to snow and I was definitively not dressed for winter yet. Stepping out of the cable car was a challenge. And there’s no good way to get down again. The snowy environment is lovely, particularly for someone who love skiing like me, but in Second Life it is difficult to build structures like mountains on which you can walk. I found some ways later, but that is definitively a downside that destroyed the experience – at least mine. Scattered into the lower mountains are vacations home that you can rent. Prices are high as in every lovely surrounding. You have to pay for the view *winks.
At the end of my visit I took a closer look at the Pandora Resort, the big house overlooking Ironfalls. The Resort is really a gem. Fully furnitured with love for the detail. Many spots to sit and talk, to celebrate or to simply have a good time. The Pandora Resort and it’s furnishings were the highlight for me and it’s really worth seeing.
Thank you, Sapphire for your heartly welcome, and thanks to the team for creating and providing this place for us.
Diomita Maurer’s Blog 